Post Lockdown Student Achievement Data

My previous post focused on academic achievement of learners in my mentoring class, most of whom I did not teach in terms 1 and 2.
I would like to follow up on academic achievement of learners in my core subject, Maths

In a nutshell term 1 had 8 weeks of on site instruction and term 2 had 7 weeks.

One would predict that....
......academic achievement would be similar between the two terms as there was only a 1 week difference  or             
......term 2 academic achievement would be lower as teachers and learners had to deal with the impact of Lockdown, both physically and mentally and implement distance learning which was a first for most.

My Maths course had standards ranging from 2 - 3 credits; some students sat one assessment, others sat 2 or more assessments and a few did not finish the programme so did not sit an assessment within that time frame of  8 weeks (term 1) or 7 weeks (term 2).
Below is a comparison of academic achievement data of learners who gained 4 or more credits during term 1 (8 weeks) or term 2 (7 weeks) which means they sat 2 or more assessments.

                                                    11MAT                   12MAT               
                                 Term 1:    3/14 = 21%            2/5 = 40%             

                                 Term 2:    7/9 = 78%              5/6 = 83%         

There was a significant shift in achievement data between the 2 terms. So what did we (me, students, school, community) do differently?

For starters, I created additional rewindable learning resources during Lockdown which my term 2 students seemed to appreciate immensely. It was like having multiple mini-me's in the room as I would hear my voice pop up as students accessed the resources which were about 2 minutes long, long enough to get the message across and still keep learners engaged.

I had more deliberate learning conversations with individuals after they had attempted a few activities and if they felt confident enough, they would sit the practice test and summative test without working through the entire programme. At first, I was a tad bit uncomfortable with that approach, but soon realised that quality of learning evidence had to trump quantity of learning evidence and I had to maximise learner enthusiasm and engagement.

The community donated food.

My school prepared the donated food and fed learners throughout the term with hot wholesome lunches with plenty for seconds.

My take away (no pun intended) is that the hot wholesome lunches had the most impact.